The Sala III de la Corte Suprema de Justicia on Thursday suspended indefinitely the trial of Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN) legislator Jorge Angulo, for alleged influence peddling, extortion and embezzlement.
The court justices said they were satisfied by the medical reports that the defendant suffers from a heart condition that prevents him to face a trail that was scheduled to have started on January 6.
On Sunday, Angulo’s son confirmed that his father was in hospital. Monday morning Angulo’s lawyer, Rafael Gairaud, petitioned the court to suspend the trial based on his clients health condition.
The court ordered a report by forensic doctors before handing down a decision. The report was delivered to the court on Wednesday, and after consideration the justices on Thursday announced their decision to suspend the trial.
Attorney General, Jorge Chavarria, who said on Monday he had doubts about Angulo’s health, said he would respect the court decision. Chavarria added that if the trial cannot start before April 30, the date when legislator’s term is up and the court loses its legal authority over the case, the prosecution has the tool to continue with the case.
The treating physician at the hospital La Catolica, said the legislator suffers from “myocardial bridge“, a condition were the arteries rest on top of the heart muscle and feed blood down into smaller vessels that populate throughout the myocardium.
If Angulo is too ill to stand trial, he should be too ill to enjoy his freedom. I hope that, once he returns from the hospital, which is likely to be very soon now that the trial has been postponed, he should be under house arrest. This thing stinks – myocardial bridging is a condition that Angulo would have had since birth and undoubtedly has been aware of – he’s probably kept this diagnosis in his back pocket for an occasion such as this one. It is also treatable with common cardiac medications or stenting, which is a relatively simple surgical procedure via catheter.